Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 or Apple Watch Series 11? Answer depends on how you use AI

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 rekindles the heated competition in the smartwatch space, bringing the focus back to health and fitness tracking. Other than a new processor under the hood, the Watch 9 features a host of advanced health tracking features that none of its competitors can do at the moment. With a starting price of Rs 37,999, the Galaxy Watch 9 promises a robust health and fitness monitoring deal within the Samsung ecosystem.

On the other hand, we have the Apple Watch Series 11 for the iPhone crowd. Existing in the world for almost a year, it promises the best health monitoring suite at a premium of Rs 46,490.

While both of these smartwatches have evolved from simple step trackers into sophisticated, predictive wellness engines, evaluating these in today’s AI era requires a different approach to these products. It is no longer about build, features or screen quality, but about how they leverage AI more effectively for fitness, health, and daily coaching.

In this case, Samsung and Apple take fundamentally different approaches to on-wrist intelligence.

Health monitoring with Gemini vs Apple Intelligence

With generative AI at the core, the Galaxy Watch 9 and Apple Watch Series 11 are no longer about answering basic voice commands. Instead, these are more of a context-aware health engine.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 relies on Gemini:

Deeply embedded into Wear OS now, Google’s Gemini lets you run complex, conversational multi-step prompts straight from your wrist without taking out your phone. This allows you to ask about key health metrics or tips during your workout, and Gemini is present with an answer in a format easy to understand.

Apple Watch Series 11 uses AI differently

Unlike the Samsung watch, Apple’s on-device AI focuses on real-time execution rather than raw conversational queries. Apple offers a Workout Buddy app, which acts as a virtual personal trainer, analysing your heart rate zones, real-time pacing, and historical fatigue. Through connected AirPods, it delivers live audio coaching mid-stride, pushing you when you are underperforming or suggesting you slow down if you are overexerting yourself.

Look at it this way – Samsung uses AI better for pre-workout strategy and holistic recovery, whereas Apple aces real-time and in-workout voice coaching.

Hardcore health, fitness tracking

Beyond general activity rings, both devices lean heavily on proprietary sensors to provide deep physiological insights for fitness enthusiasts.

With the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9, it’s all about metabolism and body. Using Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA), the watch calculates skeletal muscle mass, body fat percentage, and water retention on demand right from your wrist.

It calculates cardiovascular stress and balances it with your sleep performance, warning you when you are at risk of exercise burnout. The Watch 9 also tracks actual systolic and diastolic trends, providing direct numerical blood pressure readings after initial monthly calibration with an external cuff.

The Apple Watch Series 11, on the other hand, goes for a clinical approach to cardiovascular health. It analyses vascular response over a rolling 30-day window using machine learning algorithms to alert users to early signs of chronic high blood pressure.

You also get FDA-cleared Sleep Apnea tracking, which continuously monitors overnight breathing disruptions to flag potential sleep disorders early. The Series 11 also tracks core health metrics like body temperature, resting heart rate, and respiratory rate to highlight overall physiological strain.

Ecosystem integration

The AI performance on these watches is heavily influenced by how seamlessly the watch communicates with your smartphone’s broader OS platform.

For the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9:

You get an ecosystem combo of One UI Watch and Android 17 (on the latest Galaxy smartphones).

While it runs on Wear OS and connects to any modern Android phone, key features like Galaxy AI sync, full ECG reports, and blood pressure calibration require pairing with a Samsung Galaxy device.

When in the Samsung ecosystem, it balances on-device processing with Google Cloud computing for complex Gemini queries. It also utilises the Samsung Health platform to aggregate data across devices. Additionally, the Watch 9 lets you check and interact with notifications on your phone, take and make calls, and run watch versions of the phone apps.

For the Apple Watch Series 11:

You are restricted to the watchOS and iOS ecosystem, which is tightly controlled by Apple.

The Apple Watch Series 11 remains strictly tied to the iOS ecosystem, offering seamless setup and automatic sync with Apple Health. It doesn’t work with Android or any other mobile ecosystem.

That exclusivity gives it certain unique features like AirPods Audio Handoff, where the Workout Buddy audio guidance routes effortlessly to connected AirPods without requiring manual Bluetooth setup. Additionally, Apple Intelligence processes the majority of health and personal data locally across your watch, iPhone, and Mac to maintain strict privacy standards.

Pricing at a glance

If these smartwatches will make you decide your next mobile ecosystem, here’s the pricing for consideration:

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (40mm Bluetooth): Starts at Rs 38,999.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (40mm LTE): Starts at Rs 42,999.

Apple Watch Series 11 (42mm Aluminium GPS): Starts at Rs 46,900.

Apple Watch Series 11 (42mm Aluminium GPS + Cellular): Starts at Rs 56,900.

Our conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and Apple Watch Series 11 are currently two of the most cutting-edge health wearables you can wear today. While the ecosystem lock limits either of these to the choice of your phone, here’s a quick context for those who are in a position to choose their health ecosystem:

Choose the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 if:

You want smarter workout planning. Samsung’s AI excels at holistic recovery. By balancing BIA body composition, Sleep Energy Scores, and Daily Cardio Loads, Galaxy AI helps you decide how hard you should train today before you step out the door.

Choose the Apple Watch Series 11 if:

You want active health guidance in real-time. Apple’s AI shines during workouts. With Workout Buddy offering real-time audio guidance and machine learning keeping passive tabs on long-term heart risks (like hypertension alerts), Apple provides a more active coaching experience during exercises.